Rep. Betty McCollum, D-Minn., participates in a news conference following a Congressional trip to the Darfur region in Sudan, on Capitol Hill in Washington on Jan. 27, 2005. She holds a photograph of a banner drawn by a Sudanese child that shows planes dropping bombs on villagers. McCollum and other members of Congress who made the trip are calling for more diplomatic pressure on the Sudanese government to stop the genocide in the region. (UPI Photo/Roger L. Wollenberg)

Betty Louise McCollum (born July 12, 1954) is the U.S. Representative for Minnesota's 4th congressional district, serving since 2001. She is a member of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (DFL).

The district centers on St. Paul, Minnesota's capital city. She is the second woman elected to Congress from Minnesota.

McCollum was born in South St. Paul, Minnesota. She is the older sister to Anthony and Monica. She is divorced and has two children. McCollum has worked as a high school social sciences teacher and as a sales manager. She first got involved in politics in 1986, when her daughter got hurt on a slide in a North St. Paul city park. The city council wouldn't do anything to fix the slide, so McCollum's neighbors encouraged her to run for a spot on the council herself. She won that November and served three terms. She then challenged longtime state representative Rich O'Conner in the DFL primary and won an upset victory. She went on to serve four terms in the state house.

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